Mail in rebates are effectively you loaning the company you are buying the equipment from the rebate money.

So all of you buying a 6D or 5DIII and looking forward to that $400 extra, well what you've done is said "Here, B&H, you can have $400 of mine for free!"

Mail-in rebates typically have a specific window of time during which you must remember to mail in the barcodes (or whatever) or you don't get your rebate. Then it can take a year or more to receive the rebate.

From the time you pull the trigger until the time you get the rebate, you have effectively loaned B&H $400 for free.

Mail in rebates are a scam and should be avoided like the plague.

They're only a scam if you don't get the rebate, and only a nuisance if you mind having to remove the barcode from the box. If you would rather pay full price, go ahead.

I recently got $450 worth of rebates on three Olympus lenses I bought along with my OM-D back in March. I initially thought they were trying to wriggle out of it when they told me that I had sent the wrong barcode for the camera, but they ended up just accepting my receipt and sent me the full rebate anyway. It took a couple of months overall, but I paid $450 less than I otherwise would have done.

Plus, if my experience selling Tamron lenses I bought while I owned a Pentax body is any experience, losing the barcode via a mail-in rebate doesn't affect the resale value of the lens to any significant degree.

I suspect that the only way companies get out of paying such rebates is if the customer, having been lured by the rebate, forgets to mail it in in time or doesn't want to cut out the bar code; presumably enough of them do this for companies to keep doing it.

Deal like this make me sad and make Canon Australia look like an absolute joke.

+1, Zis ist reducilus, and the offer isn't even from some shady online discount you have to sue for delivery but from a reputable dealer.

While I really appreciate fair wages and all, the foreign (that's *you*, US-Americans :-)) markets show how much profit there still is in the Canon cameras over here, they are simply priced as "premium" or luxury products. The US offers nearly make a trip in person worthwhile than to buy local.

In fairness Canon does have some ok "cashback" offers now and again in Germany, some nice lens and flash discounts, but only for older camera bodies

People from others countries are drooling on these deals, and here you are bit**&%^ about these rebates

That would be because I've experience with mail in rebates.

Yeah, so have I....and while I would certainly prefer an instant rebate over a mail-in rebate, I'll take a mail-in rebate over no rebate at all. Really, the instructions are pretty simple, and three minutes of my time plus a postage stamp is a pretty minimal impediment to get the rebate.

Well, I paid $1779 for a 6D body only from B&H back in April (which was less than Canon's promotion period that followed), so if you want to send me the form to fill out and have me do all the work of cutting out the product codes from the box, I'd be happy to do all that work.

Why do they keep selling the cameras in bundles like this? Why not just offer a good price on the camera, and not add in all that "bonus" crap that we have to pay extra for in terms of shipping costs, extra taxes and environmental fees, duty and brokerage charges? It all gets tossed into a dumpster because it's worthless crap. (which I guess is why they have to give it away in the first place...) Maybe they're just hoping to appeal to the last vestiges of the Walmart mentality out there...?

I've been thinking about a 6D as a backup for a little while now, and CR's front page B&H deal really has me thinking. At $1999 for that bundle, the resale of the package components could net a solid savings, especially since I already have a 24-205 and a printer...

People from others countries are drooling on these deals, and here you are bit**&%^ about these rebates

That would be because I've experience with mail in rebates.

For the most part, I'd say you're right (I hate them as well) but historically, Canon hasn't fudged these (check out slickdeals past threads on this . . . no one reports getting ripped off).

If you look at this no other way, then you get for your time: 5DmkIII, New, for the refurb price, with no tax . . . and some extra junk. It's basically where most of us feel that the retail price should be at (not a discount price mind you )

No physical address listed on their website, just a contact web form and a toll free number. Domain name holder hidden behind a proxy. Their Verisign certificate is for "Digital Monster Incorporated" and a little digging turned up this:

I was told by an upper level salesguy about a year ago...that these bait and switch internet companies who change their names, and who attempt to upsell you when you try to place an order (which is always over the phone)...are usually located somewhere in the Bronx. He said these people are of a certain religion...the same religion that requires B&H and Adorama to close even their internet orders at certain times, and on certain dates...and for certain weeks in October and April. It's just that the above two trusted names...are the only ones who are allowed to be totally legitimate...while the others depend on the shady side of deal making to attempt to make money. So at least according to that guy I spoke with, there could very possibly be some collusion going on between them all.

It sounds at least somewhat plausible to me. It's a shame that all the largest camera retailers have to be located in or around New York, or New Jersey...in my opinion. But I guess there are good and bad business people everywhere. It just seems to me, that cameras from Asia would have less distance to travel if they just got imported into CA...of course that state has even more problems.

For anyone who is complaining about mailing in a rebate, please understand there are two major reasons they are done.

1) Can show a lower sale price but still get some to pay the higher price by some not sending in the rebate or others not doing them correctly.

2) By forcing the purchaser to cut off the UPC code for the rebate, the purchaser can no longer return the item to the original store, leading to a reduction in returns to store. This somewhat prevents people from buying an item to use for an event, then return for full price.

We as purchasers can complain about this all we want but as long as these incentives hold true, then the temptation to use them by sellers will remain.